Castlevania General

Glenn, you just won the topic. I don't think we have anything more to discuss.

It's one reason I call myself a fanboy. I do follow the plot and try to make sense of it. One reason I love the Wild Mass Guessing page for Castlevania.

As for me, I stick with the previous canon. That Legends, CotM, and CV64/LoD are out. Oh, and Order of Shadows. Why? Because aside from Legends, most of those games all take place in the time after Richter, but before Bram Stoker's Dracula. Which means that Dracula was ressurected FIVE times between Rondo of Blood and Quincy Morris.

For all the flak that Dracula gets for coming back from the dead, it's usually the case that he only comes back twice or so every hundred years. (or so.) CV3/CoD, Adventure/Belmont's Revenge, CV/CV2 (LoI is the odd one out here.) And, finally, RoB/SotN. Then Quincy, and then the world wars helped fuel his resurrection. So they got a free pass. But CotM and all those other games just cram in a whole bunch of resurrections at once.

Not that they're bad games, far from it. I just don't think their presence makes much sense in the main story.

Legends I leave out for a handful of reasons, but I mostly side with the idea that Dracula didn't start his Roaring Rampage of Revenge until his wife died, and that didn't happen until after Sonia's story. On the other hand, I do like the one WMG I saw which suggested that Vlad was his reincarnation. Perhaps a Belmont named Sonia killed Mathias, but his resurrection wasn't quite as refined, and he came back as Vlad Tepes.

Yeah, I really worry about stuff like this way too much.

edited 2nd Dec '09 1:14:34 PM by TriggerLoaded

BEFORE THE CREAM SITS OUT TOO LONG

YOU MUST WHIP IT!

When a shitty timeline comes along,...

...well, I just ignore it at best and go right on whipping things.

Oh, yeah, don't get me wrong, the important part is the whippin'. And wall meat, of course.

Say, about Castlevania music, who else loves Dance of Illusion/Illusionary Song? Pretty badass boss music.

AVGN's review of the very first game is a thing of beauty...

jaime: Every so often, Zudak and I end up citing the famous Symphony proogue speech on Ventrilo chat, and then at the end of it, I play that over Vent. It's awesome.

Ah, yes. Dance of Illusions is one of my favorite songs. I think it adds tension to the Dracula battles and works well with a difficult battle with him. Like the first (Nine) time I faced Dracula's 3rd form in the PSP remake of Rondo.

One of my personal favorite boss themes is Teus Deus meus from Dracula X Chronicles for PSP. Personally loved the drums, vocals and Vampire Killer snippet.

edited 2nd Dec '09 1:47:14 PM by Mr. Pastry

Or, for that matter, the Dracula X (SNES) Dracula battle.

Glenn, Order of Ecclesia is pretty nice in that it has several totally separate areas and one giant Dracula's Castle. 8-) Ecclesia needs more love, it's a surprisingly fun (if annoyingly hard at times) game.

But I want a TON of INTERCONNECTED areas!

I've only played Rondo of Blood via an exe file. (never had a rom+emulator combo of the game). Pretty good conversion though. No save stating your way outta that one :P

If you've played Nocturne In The Moonlight, you'll notice similarities between Rondo's post battle dialogue and Nocturne's prologue dialogue.

Dance of Illusions is a cool boss tune, and a fine Dracula theme, but the best boss tune, in my opinion, is a tie between Creature In The Depth and Piercing Silence.

What about Great Gate of Darkness?

You can just hear the demonic, evil laughter in that track. You can just hear it.

Also, Death Ballad. That's an overwhelming aura of evil if there ever was one.

Castlevania Judgment is go. You may now trash the game. Just don't go overboard, 'kay?

And for the love of God or the entity opposite to him, can someone please explain to me how Trevor in that game is supposed to be like Simon in Captain N? That line keeps coming up and I just don't see it, unless you count his confidence. He's not a narcissist, he's not the Ted Baxter, he doesn't second-guess everyone, his whip doesn't do all the work for him...

What about Great Gate of Darkness?

I remember reading an article of a person talking about, in his opinion, the worst CV tunes. He rated GGoD as one of them, for being too bombastic in his opinion.

I don't agree in the slightest. Still, can't say I have the same love for that melody as I do others, but still an excellent boss tune, about equal to Dissonant Courage or The Six Servants of the Devil.

Also, Death Ballad. That's an overwhelming aura of evil if there ever was one.

Ditto. A fine tune, but still can't top my two favorites above.

Castlevania Judgment is go. You may now trash the game. Just don't go overboard, 'kay?

Haven't played Judgment. Hate most of the character designs, but the personalities I'm usually cool with. As mentioned, probably about half the characters never HAD characterization before this game, so how can they be 'out of character?'

If they ever try their luck with a sequel, I hope they bring in some more monster characters. Slogra and Gaibon would be a cool tag team, as well as Jonathan and Charlotte. I think Medusa has serious potential. (Her critical is obvious) And, naturally, Soma Cruz.

I think the characterization was horrible. It seems to be ripped off of every Tournament Arc in the book.

On the music note, I rather have a soft spot for Into The Dark Night from Dawn of Sorrow and Sorrow's Distortion or whatever they call it as the Albus Battle from Order of Ecclesia.

And I'm a sucker for the guitar in Festival of Servants from Symphony of the Night. I personally found most of the background music from SOTN to be a little boring.

One of the few things I liked about Judgement was the soundtrack. I thought it was freakin' awesome. Although I am slightly disappointed for the lack of Theme of Simon from Super Castlevania IV.

edited 2nd Dec '09 5:05:40 PM by Mr. Pastry

For years my favorite games have been the games on the Nintendo 64. I have the most memories of them, many of which are fond while some not so fond (why can I never find both those damn pieces in the Villa without running around like a moron for ages?). Playing it again and setting out on a quest to beat both games with all characters and see all the endings revealed to me that I still think they are rather nice games. Yes the camera can be an unresponsive bitch, the controls are a bit sucky and Reinhardt sucks ass to play but I find it fun regardless...

The opening theme from 64 is one of my favorite tracks from the series.

I am currently playing the thrid game once again after about eleven years of only thinking about it. I love it even if the controls are stiff from it being so old.

Obligatory Castlevania Birds link.

edited 2nd Dec '09 9:23:50 PM by English Ivy

Manly Tears were shed.

Haha, I figured he'd like SOTN, though I do agree that Super Castlevania IV gave players the most control over the whip. Sadly, I've seen some fans object to this because they think it'll make the games easier. Super Castlevania IV may not have been insanely hard (I think the difficulty was fine), but it's not a cakewalk either.

Also, I've gotten the idea of making a spin-off to A Day In Draculas Life, "A Day in Richter Belmont's Life", which basically goes through Belmont's equally messed-up day, right till Belmont reaches Dracula, then Kajetokun's voice track enters the picture, complete with Belmont and Dracula insulting each other constantly by the end. Sadly, I have discovered that I'm not that good with multiple voices, it seems.

edited 3rd Dec '09 8:02:54 PM by Cronosonic

@ Glenn: Continuing the conversation we had in the CV Adventure Rebirth thread, I suppose AVGN's comments on SCVIV vs. SOTN somewhat state why the word "Castlevania" doesn't really come to mind whenever i play any of the most recent Metroidvanias  ^*

Classicvanias:

• Its just you and your skills vs. the game.
• More atmospheric. Gothic/ Horror atmosphere in an Action-Adventure series is Made Of Win
• The simplicity makes it memorable

Metroidvanias:

• Several genres rolled into one (which is awesome, of course.)
• Somehow got more JRPG-ish as the series went along, which in my mind, isn't so awesome (as much as i like JRPGs)
• You can't help but think about What Could Have Been, now that the Belmonts are no longer the focus of the series.

edited 3rd Dec '09 8:21:20 PM by Schitzo

No, what we need in a game is this:

• Hero goes through castle, defeats Dracula.
• Hero gets a whip, or gets an assortment of weapons. (Or both?)
• Castle (and other levels, if applicable) are very atmospherically rich.
• The music is amazing.

That's all we need. (Note that I did not specify the gender of the hero.)